The Vault Hunters
by Roy McCoy
Summary: Handsome Jack wasn't always the owner of Hyperion Corp. He was once the leader of a gang of mercenaries known as the Handsome Boys or Handsome Crew. They got into all sorts of trouble and always came out of it with cash in hand. They lived the life until Jack did something, extravagant. Now there are four men out there ready to take revenge against him. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1: Handgun for Hire

"The Vault Hunters"

Chapter 1: Hired Handgun

Dylan was just a normal guy. Out in the middle of the sandiest deserts there was a place where anyone could go. An easy motel, cheap prices, warm food, cold beer, and decent rooms. This place was the 'Oasis' literally, it was the Oasis motel in the middle of nowhere. And he lived there, for as long as he could remember.

"Alice," Dylan shouted from across the bar, his voice muffled by the counter he had his head on.

"Another beer," he put his hand up, calling for her and then dropped it back down. The sands outside of the motel were raging, not planning to let up any time soon. A T.V mounted on the wall in the corner of the room showed nothing but news reports about the world around him. A woman in early twenties came out of the back room through saloon doors and put a bottle down on the counter. She pulled a bottle opener out from under the counter and popped the cap. She slid it over to Dylan who caught it in his hand without even looking. He lifted his head off the counter and started drinking, sweat pouring down his face as he drank. He looked like he always looked. Dirty, sweaty, and so full of shit his eyes and hair were brown. At least, he was full of shit to those he was hired to hate.

He glugged it down and then smashed the bottle against the ground. The bar he was in was dimly lit, and any lights that were on kept on flickering.

"These storms are really bad for business you know," Alice said, cleaning a mug with a cloth. No one aside from the two of them seemed to be there. No sounds aside from the flickering of the lights, the static of the T.V. and the shuddering of the windows from the storm. Dylan sat up and looked over at Alice as she cleaned the mug. He stared at her for a few minutes until she asked;

"What the hell are you doing?" he hadn't even noticed she had walked right up to him and was right in his face. He jolted back suddenly and nearly fell off his chair. He regained balance and said;

"Umm, nothing, just daydreaming I guess…" he tried very poorly to play it off. She looked at him with a glare that was sharper than his knife and replied coldly.

"Well, keep whatever ideas you have in your head, got it?" her stare was enough to make anyone uncomfortable, even a bullymong would tremble in fear. He knew damn well that if he ever… tried anything on her… it would be the end of his life. Not that the idea didn't cross his mind. When he had first arrived there, he was stunned by her… assets. It was only until he learned that the last man who got intimate with her was now eating out of a tube that he knew to back off. She was very lovely actually, raven black hair, great figure, and blue eyes that would make any man think he was dreaming. What was he? He was just some gun for hire, skinny, not much muscle, and even less money. He lived off of mercenary cash and didn't care if it was covered in blood. He had one possession to his name and that was it. It was his handgun, a Jakobs brand weapon, fired explosive rounds, 14 bullet magazine.

Just then, a news report flickered to life.

"This just in! Pandora now faces a new threat!" Dylan shrugged it off.

"Heh, right. And I'm an innocent man," Dylan said getting up. Alice looked at him with surprise.

"Wait… You're not gonna see if it's a job?" she asked.

"Naw," Dylan said indifferently.

"It's probably just some shmuck who thinks he's a big threat. The Crimson Raiders will handle him in no time," he walked to exit of the bar, heading for his room.

"I think I'll turn in early tonight Alice," she shrugged, nothing she was going to do about it.

That's when the newscaster said it.

"A man known as 'Handsome Jack' has begun to use Hyperion robots known as 'Loaders' for his own purposes!" Dylan stopped dead in his tracks. Handsome… Jack…

"The successful owner of Hyperion Corporation has been mining Euridium on Pandora for ages now," Dylan turned around and walked to his bar stool and sat down with an expression of pure hatred on his face.

"His intentions have been made clear," Dylan was just waiting for him to say what was on his mind.

"He seeks the vault of this world!"

…

Dylan slammed his fist on the table and got up again, walking out of the bar quickly, startling Alice.

"Hey! What about your money?" she shouted to him as he opened the door, letting sand and wind rush in.

"Put it on my tab!" he shouted back without turning around. He slammed the door shut and the room returned to silence. Outside Dylan trudged through the sand and wind, putting his hand up to his face to allow him to see. He walked up the stairs to the second floor of the motel and grabbed onto a door. He pulled out a key from his pocket and jammed it into the lock, he turned it and the lock opened. He pushed open the door and ran inside, shutting it before any sand could fly in with him. He walked to his bed, and sat down. He took off his jacket and shirt, as well as jeans and then got under the covers. He slept there in nothing more than boxers, knowing the first thing he would do the next morning…

"Jack is back huh? Wrong move," he thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: How To Make A Big Exit

The Vault Hunters

Chapter 2

Dylan walked out of his room at the motel and stepped down the stairs, fully locked and loaded, ready to kill. He stepped into the bar, which was full of drunks and bandits, and a bunch of other knuckle heads he would never have to see again. He walked up to Alice and slammed a gun on the table, it was his Jakobs handgun. Alice looked down at it while she cleaned out a beer mug.

"Well what the hell do you want me to do with that?" she asked.

"I'm gonna raise some hell in here… you in?" She smiled like a vile vixen.

"You kidding? I've been waiting forever to kill these pervy sons of bitches," Dylan cocked his other tediore handgun and turned around, Alice grabbed his shoulder and handed him the gun.

"I've got it covered," she pulled a fully loaded SMG out from under the bar and locked it.

"Let's kill," Dylan started to fire at all the other guys in the bar, killing them while they tried to run. Several bandits overturned the tables and ducked for cover. The sounds of gunfire and drunken screams ran rampant through the bar. Dylan explosive rounds from his tediore gun blasting apart the place plank by plank while Alice made holes in the walls covered in blood. Dylan ducked behind the bar to reload while the bandits returned fire with automatic assault rifles. Alice grabbed a beer bottle and blindly threw it over the bar, smashing a table.

"I'm so sick of you ASSHOLES trying to swindle me out of my booze!" she screamed throwing another bottle. It crashed against the table the bandits used for cover and Dylan got an idea. He grabbed a nearby cigarette tray and pulled out a cigarette with just a little heat left on it. He shoved it into his Jakobs like a bullet and loaded it into the barrel, aiming right at the alcohol drenched table.

"BOOM SHACKA LACKA!" the cigarette shot right into a pile of beer and ignited the table, and the bandits along with it. One of them ran out of cover screaming in utter terror and pain, completely on fire. A bullet whizzed through his head and he hit the floor. The rest of the bandits backed away from the table pressing themselves against the walls, lining them up for Alice's gun. She finished reloading and said;

"Bitches love SMG's," the bullets fired in a line from left to right, killing all six bandits in a bloody and gory mess. Once the last guy hit the ground the room was silent, the only thing that could be heard after the dying of gunfire, (and bandits) was the slow spreading of the sizzling fire. Dylan re-holstered his guns and grabbed a bucket of water and doused the fire. Alice cleaned the wooden bits and pieces off the bar and started to scrub the blood stains off. Dylan walked around from body to body, looting what he could, like spare ammo and maybe a better gun. He walked up to Alice and slammed money down on the table.

"What's this?"

"My rent, and last night's tab," she looked at him surprised.

"You going somewhere?" suddenly two men burst through the doors of the bar and cocked their weapons. Dylan slowly turned around while Alice put the money in her pockets, cocking her SMG for another round of Bandit slaughter.

"Yes, he is," Dylan quickly grabbed his guns and held them out at the men, one gun per man.

"Two on one standoff huh? You're gonna need another six guys before this is even,"

"No," the man in the black suit pulled out a handgun and aimed right at Dylan.

"We're not," he fired a shot and Dylan fired back. He hit one of the men and killed him, but he missed the other one. Funny thing was he didn't even feel a bullet wound. He turned around after inspecting himself and what he saw wasn't pretty. Alice grabbed her chest as blood began to flow out and she collapsed to the ground dead.

"NO ALICE!" the other man rushed up behind him and tried to hit Dylan with his gun but failed. Dylan jumped over the bar before he could and he missed. He checked Alice for a pulse, or breath… anything but she was gone and there was nothing he could do. The man reached over the bar and pointed his gun at Dylan shouting;

"FREEZE!" Dylan pointed his gun at the man and killed him with a headshot without even looking.

"Alice…" she was gone and he knew it. He reached into her pocket and pulled the money back out. That's when her eyes flicked open and she sat up screaming in mortal pain, and then collapsed back on the ground again, alive but mortally wounded. Dylan grabbed a medical syringe from Dr Zed out of his pocket and injected her with it. After a few moments her screaming subsided and the pain lessened. She sat back up again and eventually got to her feet, Dylan sat back at a bar stool and breathed a sigh of relief. She was the only person out here who he could talk to, she was the only person who understood him and she was still okay. He looked around at the bar once again and found that it was still in ruin from the fight that took place moments ago. Alice reached into her pocket and felt around for the money, she then checked the rest of her body… nothing.

"Where the hell is my money?" Dylan looked back at her and quickly grabbed the money from his pocket and once again slammed it down on the table, smiling.

"I thought you were dead… you obviously weren't gonna need it,"

"Whatever… so are you gonna go somewhere or what?"

"Yeah I am, as a matter of fact it's about time I got going, you gonna be okay here on your own?" She looked back with a clever smile.

"You kidding me? I'll be fine, with this injury I'll be back to normal in two days and a few more Zed injections," he smiled back at her, for the last time in a while.

"Good, see ya," he walked outside of the bar and walked over to his motorcycle. He put on his sunglasses and revved up the bike. That's when Alice ran outside holding something.

"Here, it's dangerous to go alone, take this," she said. He grabbed it and unsheathed it, it was a glowing white sword with intense blue streaks of energy on it. He sheathed it and clipped it onto his belt.

"Thanks Alice, take care of yourself," he smiled and revved up the bike and sped on out of there, blazing past the sands all around him. Alice waved at him as she got smaller and smaller in his rear view mirror. He looked ahead and pulled out his compass and watch.

"Heading north at 11:23 A.M. I should be at the train station in about six hours, right on time," he sped off into the sands, counting in his mind the number of ways he could kill Jack.


End file.
